Water User Groups in Central Asia: Emerging Form of Collective Action in Irrigation Water Management

This paper examines the recent emerging informal Water Users Groups (WUGs) on the Ferghana Valley for managing of the water at the former collective farm level and potential for strengthening of the weak Water Users Associations (WUAs) through replication of WUGs formation. Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asian states have introduced reforms in different sectors including the water resources sectors. As a part of the water resources management reforms, Water Users Associations (WUAs) formation has implemented to manage water resources infrastructure and water distribution. WUGs have been emerging because WUAs have not been very efficient and effective due to their top-down implementation approach. In future, WUGs are very effective institutional mechanism of water resources management, and a useful support instrument to WUAs.     

Emodin induces apoptosis of concanavalin A-stimulated murine splenocytes

Food Science and Biotechnology - Emodin, one of the major compounds in the herb Reynoutria elliptica, is known to maintain immunosuppressive, anti-allergic, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory...     

Resettler choices and long-term consequences of involuntary resettlement caused by construction of Kotmale Dam in Sri Lanka

Involuntary resettlement caused by dam construction, especially in developing countries, is being criticized as an additional cause of impoverishment of the poor population being resettled. Despite current improvements in planning and implementation of involuntary resettlement, there is little experience or research on the medium‐ to long‐term consequences of involuntary resettlement on those being resettled. Within the comprehensive water resource development programme in Sri Lanka under the Mahaweli Accelerated Development Programme, Kotmale Dam was constructed in 1985 for the purpose of hydroelectric power generation and irrigation water supply. Construction of the dam caused ≈ 3000 households to be evacuated and relocated. There were two resettlement alternatives for the families being affected by the dam construction project. The first was to stay close to the reservoir, and receive smaller land plots. The other was to settle in newly developed areas for Mahaweli Development Programme, being located >100 km from original villages, but receive larger, irrigated land plots. In order to determine the consequences after 25 years of the resettlement caused by construction of Kotmale Dam, these authors conducted socioeconomic interview surveys of ≈250 households in three resettlement areas, including Mahaweli System H, System B, System C and villages located near the reservoir site. The study results indicated that the majority of the resettlers perceived their livelihoods as being improved after their resettlement. Furthermore, the majority of them expressed their satisfaction regarding their resettlement choices and their current livelihoods, either in the resettlement sites located near the reservoir or in resettlement sites located far from the original settlement sites. However, their satisfaction is usually based on different perceptions on the part of the resettlers that reflect different strategies for coping with involuntary resettlement. The major factors affecting the choices of resettlers were land ownership and/or the educational opportunities for their children. These survey results indicate that the resettled people made conscious choices for their future, especially for their children. For future resettlement programmes, these authors propose that it is important that the considerations of future generations be incorporated in a feasible, sustainable manner, particularly in regard to educational opportunities.     

MACHINE PROCESSING OF SINHALA NATURAL LANGUAGE: A STEP TOWARD INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

An intelligent machine can be thought of as a human friendly machine system that identifies or understands the problems of generating tasks, developing plans, compiling and executing the tasks automatically. High performance dependable intelligent systems must understand and translate natural languages. The translation of natural languages for intelligent systems has been one of the most challenging problems in intelligent systems from the very beginning. It is the responsibility of a translation system to assign the responsibility of task generation ability of the machine to automate a program generation.

In this paper, the problem of advanced machine translation capabilities is approached by examining the Sinhala natural language. Sinhalese has not been analyzed using computational linguistics. Our earlier system on Sinhalese morphology is the first attempt of such a study. This paper extends it to syntactic and semantic analysis. We formalize grammar rules for unit, phrase, clause and sentence, and developed a semantically characteristic Sinhalese dictionary, and a conceptual dictionary based on English, Japanese, and Sinhalese. Syntactic and semantic analyses are implemented on the computer and sound experimental results are obtained.     

In vitro application of selected essential oils and their major components in controlling fungal pathogens of crown rot in Embul banana (Musa acuminata– AAB)

The necessity for pesticide‐free fresh produce have prompted investigating the effect of selected essential oils and their major components on inhibition of conidial germination, appressoria formation and membrane permeability changes of the pathogens responsible for crown rot of banana. Eugenol, which is the major component of the essential oil of Ocimum basilicum, was the most effective chemical component in inhibiting conidial germination of Colletotrichum musae and Fusarium proliferatumin vitro while Cymbopogon citratus oil was the least effective. Both O. basilicum and C. citratus oils and their major components (Eugenol, citral a + b) inhibited appressoria formation by C. musae and changed the selective permeability of conidial membranes. Ocimum basilicum oil, eugenol and citral a + b could be satisfactorily used for inhibition of conidial germination and disruption of conidial activity of banana pathogens.     

Short‐term feeding of fermentable dietary fibres influences the gut microbiota composition and metabolic activity in rats

This study investigated the effects of dietary fibres on gut bacterial abundance and metabolic activity in rats fed short‐term. Faecal samples from rats fed for 7 days showed differences in the effects of dietary fibres on gut bacterial populations. Broccoli fibre, inulin, potato fibre and potato resistant starch significantly increased the faecal Bacteroides‐Prevotella‐Porphyromonas group compared with cellulose. Growth of pathogenic bacteria such as Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. was decreased significantly in rats fed barley β‐glucan, citrus pectin, inulin and broccoli fibre diets. An increase in Bifidobacterium spp. and butyric acid levels, the so‐called bifidogenic and butyrogenic effects, was observed in rats fed inulin and potato fibre diets. Organic acid concentrations and polysaccharide contents in the rat faeces confirm the fermentability of dietary fibres in the gut. This study demonstrates the positive effects of plant‐sourced dietary fibres on gut microbiota composition and metabolic activity.